


Brings Me Back to Old Times

by protectginozasquad



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, F/M, Pre-Canon, Tags to be added, i'm sure someone has already used this title but oh well, will go into canon times too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 07:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20042263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectginozasquad/pseuds/protectginozasquad
Summary: Jim Hopper wasn't expecting anything out of detention. He certainly wasn't expecting to make friends witha girl.





	Brings Me Back to Old Times

**Author's Note:**

> Come one, come all to my childhood best friends jopper au. I love these two so much and have so much affection for their relationship. Obviously, their history as high school somethings (friends? friends with benefits?? sweethearts?!! what is it??????) is hinted at in canon, so I wanted to explore what their relationship could have looked like.
> 
> I’m hopperisntdead on tumblr

Hawkins didn’t seem so small back then. 

Or at least, he didn’t mind it back then. It wasn’t like he knew any different. 

“Hey Hop! Pass me the ball!” 

Jim dribbled the ball and passed it off to his friends, who made a basket. The shouted in excitement - they'd won their little playground recess game.

Jim Hopper had friends like all little boys did, and like all little boys, he avoided girls like the plague. 

It wasn’t until detention that afternoon - his dad was going to kill him - that he made friends with a girl. 

He walked in, frowning, slouching, and generally feeling pretty miserable. Sure, Mr. Hanson had deserved it, but Jim hadn’t meant to be so forceful in talking back. It just kind of came out. 

_“Is there something you’d like to share with the class, Mr. Hopper?”_

_“Maybe if you’d quit pretending to care, I would,” said Jim to the teacher, furious about being called out in front of the class for the third time that day._

_“Teachers do care, Mr. Hopper,” Mr. Hanson said sternly. “You think we do this for the money? Detention for you.”_

It was a stupid argument, but Jim hated that about Mr. Hanson. Always pretending like he cared about students, when really it seemed his favorite thing to embarrass students in front of other students. Being in fourth grade was hard enough already. You weren’t young enough for teachers to come to your rescue, and old enough to get bullied by the sixth graders. No, being a fourth grader sucked, and his shitty teacher who pretended to care about their lives while being an actual asshole only made it worse. 

Still, he ought to get to his math homework, or his dad was really going to kill him. Jim might never see the light of day except for school for the next three months as it was - this was his third detention in two weeks. 

“This is so stupid,” the girl next to him muttered as he tried to focus on his math homework. He looked up, a little wary, but curious. 

“What did you do?” He asked. 

She looked at him, eyes more wild than any of his friends, and he recognized her from the fourth grade class next door. 

“I punched a bully, that’s all. They should be thanking me,” she crossed her arms over her chest. 

Jim felt himself smirk a little, homework forgotten. Frizzy brown hair, small stature, he had a hard time picturing her standing up to a bully, until he looked at her eyes. Bright, wild, and a little tiny bit insane. It was then he noticed that one of her eyes looked a little swollen. 

“Did he deserve it?” 

She gaped at him. 

“Of course he did. I wouldn’t have hit him if he didn’t.” 

Jim laughed. He imagined this tiny girl throwing a big swing at another kid. 

“He was a sixth grader, too,” she added as if proud. 

“You’re brave,” Jim said, a little incredulous. Even he wouldn’t take on a sixth grader. A fifth grader, maybe. He’d learned his lesson by now. “Did he do that to your eye?” 

She shrugged. “They gave us both detention, but he’s in a separate room. They’re worried I’ll ‘start something’ again.” She rolled her eyes. “I only do what’s fair. Besides, no one should get bullied. Especially not third graders.” 

So she had stuck herself between a sixth grader - he could guess which one - and a third grader. 

“You must be pretty strong,” he said without thinking about it. 

She laughed and smiled at him. He felt a tiny flip in his stomach. Weird. He ignored it. 

“I don’t know about that. But I do know bullies are stupid, and I shouldn’t be in dentention for giving him what for.” 

“I’m Jim Hopper.” He paused. “My friends call me Hop, sometimes. You can call me that if you want.” 

“Okay, Hop,” she said. “I’m Joyce,” she said, smiling again. “What did you do?” 

“Oh,” Jim said, feeling stupid after knowing what she was in for. “I mouthed off at the teacher. It’s my fault, really.” 

“I bet he deserved it. You have Mr. Hanson, right?” 

Jim nodded. 

“He’s a jerk.” 

Jim smiled again, nodded again. “Yeah, he is.” 

“Too bad you’re not with us. We have Mrs. Cherry. She’s the best.” 

“Even though she gave you detention?” 

Joyce shrugged. “I guess teachers have rules they have to follow. It’s still bullshit though.” 

Jim had never heard a girl say a swear word before. He laughed. 

“What’s so funny?” Joyce glared at him. 

“I’ve never heard a girl talk like that.” 

“Oh,” she looked surprised. “My dad always talks this way. My mom doesn’t like it, but dad says it’s okay as long as my teachers don’t hear.” 

“Dads are usually right, so I’m sure it’s fine,” Jim said. I mean, not his dad. His dad was kind of like Mr. Hanson, but meaner. Still, even his dad gave good advice, and he’d heard that other dads were good at that kind of thing. It was swearing that they were talking about, not good life advice, but Jim was too young to know any better. 

+++ 

He wouldn’t exactly say they became friends after that. I mean, fourth grade is around the time when it becomes uncool to be friends with girls. Girls are gross and don’t like to play games as much anymore. 

Joyce was different, but Jim still didn’t feel like he could just go ask her to play on the playground. That would be weird and his friends would make fun of him. But he couldn’t help but watch when she played hopscotch or jump rope with her friends, how she looked tougher than all the other girls, and he bet she would play kickball with them if he asked. She was cool that way. 

They got detention together once in a while, but more often than not, Jim was in by himself. 

He found himself looking for her when they got in line for lunchtime. And often he’d see her, she’d wave and smile at him, and it made him feel warm on the inside. 

Until one day, someone poked him from behind. It was Eli, one of his gang but forever the antagonist. 

“What, is that your girlfriend or something?” He said in a mocking voice. 

Jim turned around quickly. “Ew, no way,” he said, frowning. 

“Then why is she smiling at you, huh?” Eli taunted. 

“We’re just, um,” Jim stammered a little. 

“Cat got your tongue? I mean Joyce got your tongue? Joyce Byers is weird anyway, she’s even weirder than the other girls. And you like her, so you must be weird too.” 

“I do not like her!” Jim said, a little louder than he meant to. His eyes stole over to the other fourth grade line, and Joyce had turned away from him, shoulders drooping a little. His heart sank. She must have heard him. 

“You know Joyce and Jim sounds kinda good together, doesn’t it?” Eli prodded him some more. 

“Will you knock it off?” Jim said, elbowing Eli in the ribs. 

“Mr. Hopper,” Mr. Hanson said sharply. Of course he had caught the part of the argument that made Jim look like he was acting out. “I must ask you to please refrain from behaving roughly around your classmates. I would hate to have to send you to detention again.” 

Jim exhaled angrily, crossing his arms over his chest. He shot Eli one last glare before turning to face forward as he headed to the lunch room. 

Detention wouldn’t be so bad, though, not if Joyce was there, he thought briefly. But she hadn’t been in the last three times he had. Maybe detention really only was worth it to her if she was protecting someone else. 

Joyce had a reputation in the school, Jim had discovered over the last few weeks. She had friends, but not many of them. She often wore the same outfit several times a week. Other kids teased her about her hair being messy and frizzled, but Jim never understood it. She looked fine, even in the same clothes with the same messy hair. 

He knew one thing for sure. He liked being around her. She made him feel accepted and like he didn’t have to pretend to be anything he wasn’t. He didn’t like that about his friends - he had to be tough and act cool. They liked him because he was good at sports and because he mouthed off to teachers. But Joyce didn’t care about those things. She just smiled at him because she wanted to. 

But fourth grade never brought them much closer together, only in detention once in a while. And when they were in detention together, he would never get his homework done. It made his dad doubly mad - not only had he gotten detention, but he hadn’t even done his work during detention. 

Jim didn’t care. If he got to talk to Joyce with no one else around, it was a relief. He found himself wanting to get in trouble just in case she was there, but he knew she wouldn’t like knowing he was in trouble all the time. 

Even if Mr. Hanson was a jerk, and full of bullshit. 

So they saw each other once in a while. After the incident with Eli, Jim stopped waving to her so much before lunch, which made him feel bad each time he met her eyes. He made sure to smile at her every time, though, and that seemed to be enough for her. 

+++ 

He didn’t think about her much over the summer - or really, he tried not to. He was spending lots of time with his friends, and they would certainly never hear of a girl hanging around. He thought they would if they took some time to get to know her. She was tough and pretty cool, after all. He thought it was stupid that the other boys couldn’t see that. 

So he ignored any thoughts of her over the summer. 

It wasn’t until the first day of the fifth grade, when he walked into Mrs. Johnson’s room, that his eyes fell on a familiar face. 

Joyce had moved classes. 

“Hey, Hop,” she said, eyes lighting up. “I don’t know why, but they changed classes for me. Cool, right?” 

Jim didn’t care that Eli had just walked in. He smiled. 

“Yeah,” he said. “Cool.”


End file.
